1 8 JUNGLE FOLK 



inhabit dry, stony ground. Round about Lahore 

 numbers of ruined mosques and tombs exist, and each 

 of these is the home of at least one pair of brown rock- 

 chats. But these birds by no means confine themselves 

 to old ruins. They are very partial to plots of building 

 land on which bricks are stacked. When a man deter- 

 mines to build a bungalow in Lahore he acquires a plot 

 of land, and then has pitched on to it a quantity of 

 bricks in irregular heaps, each heap being a cartload. 

 These bricks are then left undisturbed for any period 

 up to ten years. Among these untidy and unsightly 

 collections of building material numbers of brown 

 rock-chats take up their abode. But there are not 

 enough ruins and collections of bricks to accommodate 

 all the rock-chats of the locality ; consequently, many 

 of them haunt inhabited buildings, and display but 

 Httle fear of the human possessors of these. Indeed, 

 an allied species (Cercomela melanura) is thought by 

 some to be the sparrow of the Scriptures. 



A cock rock-chat used at the beginning of each hot 

 weather to come into the skyhght of my office at 

 Lahore and sing most sweetly, while his mate was 

 sitting on her eggs hard by. As I had not then seen a 

 nest of this species I sent a Mohammedan chaprassi 

 into the Shah Chirag — a tomb in the office compound — 

 to ascertain whether the nest was inside it or not. 

 He brought back word that the nest was inside the 

 sepulchre, but that Christians were not allowed inside, 

 adding, however, that the fakir in charge thought that 

 an exception might be made in my favour. A rupee 

 settled the question. Matting was laid down so that 



